Thank you in advance for your time and commitment here. I am kind of freaking out. I was in my medical schools cadaver lab today and while exposing muscles of the back, I cut through my glove and penetrated the skin of my finger. I wasn't a bad cur and after asking the professor what to do, I washed my hands with soap and continued lab. I was assured by two of my professors that I should not be worried about any blood borne pathogen..... but I am. They told me there was no risk.... that the formaldehyde took care of everything but I needed another opinion.... should I be worried for possible HIV/Hepatitis/Anything Else?

Response from Dr. Frascino

"Dr. Thai?" Who the hell is that?

I agree with your esteemed professors: no risk. See below.

Dr. Bob

HIV (HIV from CORPSE OR CADAVER, 2009) Oct 9, 2009

If a patient has been dead for 3 days, you dont know their HIV status, you get punctured with a suturing needle while performing and autopsy on the patient. The needle was used. Should you worry about contracting HIV in that scenario?

Response from Dr. Frascino

Hi,

The short answer is no.

The longer answer is nope! (See below.)

Dr. Bob

Exhuming a body with HIV (RISK OF HIV FROM CORPSE OR CADAVER, 2009) Jul 26, 2009 After being denied our request to exhume a body which was buried on our family plot illegally (without the deed or our permission) from the NJ state Health Dept.Is there a public health concern exhuming a body after 10 years that has been buried with HIV as cause of death?

Response from Dr. Frascino

Hi,

You are planning to exhume a body that was planted six feet under a decade ago? Hmm . . . why, may I ask, would you want to do that? I'm sure our readers would like to know as well. Apparently you have no fears that the RIP (rest in peace) guy will come back and haunt you for disturbing his eternal slumber. (A common occurrence in horror flicks!) And what exactly are you going to do with Mr. Skeleton-Crawling-with-Maggots-and-Worms-guy once you unearth him? Sure, Halloween is just around the corner and you could hang him on your front porch to scare the bejesus out of young trick-or-treaters, but your neighbors might frown on that. There is no personal or public health risk from an HIV/AIDS perspective. However, if you really do plan to dig this dude up, that could be the least of your worries. I'd suggest you let him RIP and maybe plant something nice over him like daisies (then he really could be "pushing up daisies") or kumquats or marijuana . . . or whatever.

I'll reprint below some information about HIV and cadavers, although in your case we are well beyond the cadaver stage!

hello dr bob it's me, the medical student from prague who asked u some questions last june. how are u doing? hope all is well. it has been a while since the last time i wrote. i think i promised to write something back to share my experience with others but i guess u already have too many emails to be read everyday=) but i've kept warning my friends about practicing safe sex and telling some of them about my experience so that they understand what is HIV all about (as what i've learnt from ur website)..so i guess at least i did a bit of my homework rite? anyway what brings me to write to u again this time is because of an accident yesterday. i was performing an autopsy. n then when i took of my gloves, there were blood on my fingers!! i'm quite sure they are not mine, so it should came from the body. i dont know how it got into the gloves. i told the profesor about it, n he just asked me to wash my hand as usual n put some disinfectant as we always did after each autopsy. he told me that the body we had just now are not that infectious so there's nothing to be worried of. i'm pretty sure that i've got no cuts on my finger. i dont know what i'm thinking rite now. i just know that as a regular visitor to this website, there is no use to become panic or anything. all i could do now is just wait to do the blood test after 3months. (see i've learnt a lot from u). but i just feel like to tell u this just to see if u have any other comments. while waiting, i'll just try my best to make sure my immune system is at the best level by having proper diet and etc. and i was wondering what kind of blood test should i perform after 3months? should i be screening for STDs again?is there any other specific type of test that i could do in this case? and what is ur opinion about this problem? is it something that i should be worrying or no? because last time i was protected rite? but this time the i wasn't protected..so i'm a little bit depressed now (eventhough i'm trying to stay as positive as i could). but no worries, i wont be looking for symptoms as i did last june, because it will only trigger the psychological symptoms and i dont want that to happen again. i guess that's enough for my report this time. it's ok if u can't reply this. i just hope that u are as healthy as usual and will always have strength to keep on contributing to those who needed. take care dr bob

medical student from prague.

Response from Dr. Frascino

Hi Medical Student from Prague,

Relax. I see no cause for concern. Remember HIV cannot permeate intact skin. Also, the risk of HIV from cadavers is essentially nonexistent. See below. If you remain worried, get a single HIV-antibody test at the three-month mark. I'm confident the result will again be negative.

I am an embalmer at a local funeral home and yesterday I was exposed to the blood of a person who is HIV positive. The person had spent approximately 2 days at the Medical Examiner's and was refrigerated to a temperature of roughly 35F-40F. I went through the entire embalming procedure and when complete I took off one of my gloves and noticed that one of my fingers was very wet. The glove had a small hole in the tip of the index finger section that allowed what I can only assume to be blood and various embalming chemicals onto my skin. I had no cuts or other abrasions but my skin had been exposed to the various liquids for quite some time as it exhibited the pruning effect that comes from prolonged exposure to fluids. Due to the various pathology courses we're required to take I know certain things about the HIV virus and I know that it is very fragile outside of the body and that touching the blood is very low risk as long as their is no way for it to breach your own skin, but this sort of long term exposure was not covered and I'm not sure just how worried I should be. I'm exposed to stuff like this everyday but because of my protective equipment I've never been directly exposed to this. Is there a serious chance that I may have been infected?

Response from Dr. Frascino

Hi,

Your HIV-acquisition risk is essentially nonexistent. HIV cannot permeate intact skin. Plus, the guy had been on ice for two days!

See below for other cadaver questions. (By the way, Six Feet Under was one of my all-time favorite television series.)

Dr. Bob

please help doc, from firefighter!! Feb 22, 2007

hey doc, how goes it? doc i am the lousy firefighter who has not stopped asking questions,and who invited you to our station but still you wouldnt come. but here goes another one. doc i was removing a dead person from a collapsed building when i got in contact with his blood, the person has been dead for 2+ days. am i at any risk of getting HIV?? and another thing, is the fluid that fills the blisters on second degree burns infectious ?what if they are not fresh blisters?is the skin good enough for HIV stability for more than minutes or hours?? thanks a lot.

greetings doctor, i am an ambulance worker, and i had a recent blood exposure and i would like to know how much HIV risk i have. i was removing a dead body from a collapsed builing after 3 days of the collapse, the body was dead since 2 days, and by accident i got some of the dead person;s blood on my fore arm and hands. is there and rick of HIV transfer from such an exposure?and is the outer skin of a person suitable to make the virus survive for more than minutes or hours? example is the fluid that fills the blisters on second degree burns?thanks a lot

Response from Dr. Frascino

Hi,

So what are you, an ambulance worker or a firefighter or both? And does that offer to visit the station still stand?

First off, if HIV-infected fluids come in contact with your skin, there is essentially no risk if your skin is intact.

Next, let me review the conventional wisdom about HIV in body fluids. HIV can be transmitted if these infected fluids come in contact with mucous membranes or non-intact skin:

HIV can be present in, but is not transmitted through, the following fluids:

saliva tears blister fluid

HIV is not present in the following body fluids (unless contaminated by visible blood):

urine feces vomit sweat

Finally, the lifespan of an HIV particle in the body is approximately 24 hours. Once a person dies, the virus can no longer reproduce itself.

Consequently, your HIV risk from the situations you describe are nonexistent. Also, I would hope you would be wearing gloves when performing such duties.

Now stop worrying so much, OK Firefighter-Ambulance-Guy?

Stay well.

Dr. Bob

HIV in a corpse Sep 18, 2008

Dear Dr Frascino

I work for a NGO in the HIV-field in South Africa. One of our patients asked the interesting question of "How long can the HIV virus survive within a corpse?" This is not a sexual question, but is relevant in many cultures in SA where family members wash the body of the dead.

I have done some research but was unable to find an answer. We often refer people to this website so I thought I might ask you. Also I wasn't sure in which category to place this question but as this forum is one of the most read ones, I thought I would post it here. Please help if you can.

Thank you for all the good work you are doing with this website. Here in South Africa it is a real help.

M

Response from Dr. Frascino

Hello M,

Although there have been no specific studies of HIV survival in corpses before or after embalming, no instances of HIV transmission have been reported from an exposure incurred in performing mortuary services. HIV is extremely fragile. For an extra level of safety, I would advise the family members to use the same precautions when washing the body of the dead as they used when the individual was alive. (See below.) This would include using rubber gloves for contact with non-intact skin or possibly infectious bodily fluids.

Dr. Bob

Worried. May 1, 2006

If you defile a corpse of someone who had died of AIDS, is it possible to contract it even after their death?

Response from Dr. Frascino

Hello,

If you are defiling corpses, worrying about HIV/AIDS is certainly not your biggest problem.

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